Great potential for plastics entering the automotive lightweight field

Why do cars need to be lightweight ? The reason is simple, but it is not easy to do. With the tightening of energy-saving and environmental laws and regulations, and consumers becoming more and more sensitive to vehicle fuel consumption, vehicle weight reduction has become the most important means to solve these problems. According to the calculation, the 100kg weight reduction of an entire vehicle is equivalent to a fuel consumption of 0.35l per hundred kilometers, which is equivalent to a reduction of 9g per kilometre of CO2 emissions. There are many ways to achieve lightweight, in addition to improving the production process, optimizing the body structure, the application of new materials has become the most mainstream lightweight program.

The so-called lightweight is based on the premise of not sacrificing vehicle safety performance. We have heard that traditional lightweight materials such as high-strength steel and ultra-high strength steel have also been heard of higher-end materials such as magnesium alloy and carbon fiber. However, subject to high costs, currently no car company other than BMW is using carbon fiber in production vehicles. On the one hand, it is cost and one side is safety. The car companies have opened up a new road underground in this “dilemma” – using plastic parts. Safety is of course very important to the car, however, the biggest drawback of the steel/aluminum exterior trim is that the thickness of the part material cannot be changed. The safety standards for each part of the car are different. This characteristic of steel/aluminum material will result in overdesign of some areas, which will unnecessarily increase the cost of construction. In addition, considering that once a car collides with a pedestrian, the contact part between the pedestrian and the vehicle body in fact needs to use a softer and more elastic material, which gives a great deal of room for the plastic parts.

Although the density of plastics is small and their strength is not high, plastic products have the advantage of high elasticity. When subjected to impact, the plastic product will be elastically deformed and able to absorb a large amount of impact energy. Nowadays, the interior parts of automobiles are basically made of plastics to protect the cockpit occupants in order to enhance the cushioning effect. Another advantage of high elasticity is that it can absorb and reduce the vibration of the vehicle and also improve comfort. In addition, the corrosion resistance of plastics is also far greater than steel, even if the surface paint is damaged, there will be no corrosion.

The most important reason why plastics are so favored is the strong plasticity. Plastics can form composite materials with other materials, and can add different fillers and plasticizers and other components to change some of the properties of the material, such as strength and heat resistance, to meet the different requirements of different parts of the body.

As the inventor of the car, Mercedes-Benz is shouldering a heavier responsibility and mission in the field of lightweight vehicles. In 2012, Mercedes-Benz released a hydrogen-powered sports car called the F125. The car is mainly made of carbon fiber, aluminum alloy and plastic. It ensures the rigidity of the car body while minimizing the weight of the car body. In addition, Cadillac and Ford are also outstanding representatives of lightweight vehicles. Cadillac already uses fiber reinforced plastic on the hood, and Ford is studying how to reduce the cost of producing carbon fiber components. At the Beijing Auto Show of the same year, the seven window components of the Haval E concept car displayed at the Great Wall were all made by a material science and technology company of Germany, Makrolon polycarbonate, and equipped with a large-size panoramic sunroof. This is the first time that Chinese domestic automakers have applied polycarbonate windows so widely.

Recently, the author test-drive the domestic 2015 Volvo XC60, the new car's tailgate uses a "plastic to steel" technology, the supplier is Yanfeng Biou Automotive Exterior Systems Co., Ltd. It is understood that Yanfeng Peiou since 1995 has been Shanghai Volkswagen, Shanghai General Motors, Changan Ford, Beijing Benz DaimlerChrysler, Shanghai Automotive, Changan Mazda, Changan Suzuki, Dongfeng Shenlong, Guangzhou Auto, FAW-Volkswagen, BMW Brilliance. The main models of the main engine factory provide exterior products such as bumpers and solutions. The latest application of the company's plastic tailgate program brand also includes Volvo (XC60), Chery Jaguar Land Rover, Changan Peugeot Citroen (DS6), SAIC Roewe (e50), Dongfeng Shenlong, Dongfeng Renault and so on.

At present, there are roughly two options for plastic tailgates, one is a full thermosetting material solution, and the other is a Higate (Hybrid Tailgate) solution created by Yanfeng Piou. The former appeared as early as the 1990s. Many types of Volvo models have applied such plastic tailgates. It is the concept of the first generation of plastic tailgates. The inner and outer plates are thermoset SMC materials. The latter has been applied to many models of PSA Peugeot Citroen, Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo. It is the second generation of plastic tailgate concept. The inner panel is also SMC material, and the outer panel is made of thermoplastic plastics, including PP and PC. / ABS and so on.

Higate solution tail door adopts the method of spraying and bonding first. Since the outer plate is sprayed after injection molding, the paint surface quality is better than that of the full thermosetting material. The low modulus of the thermoplastic material enables this type of plastic tailgate to automatically recover after a low-speed collision, which reduces the maintenance probability and cost, and the injection molding of the outer plate greatly increases the molding freedom of the entire vehicle. In addition, the use of a low coefficient of expansion material contributes to the overall tailgate size control. Compared with sheet metal parts, the plastic tailgate can achieve 25-35% weight loss. It is reported that, depending on the type of vehicle (large, medium, and small SUVs or hatchbacks), Yanfeng Peiou will specifically adopt different plastic tailgate solutions to meet different needs.

Car lightweighting is a topic that will never be outdated. Times are improving. Technology is changing. There will always be new technologies on the stage and old technologies will be eliminated. At present, plastics will be the most promising lightweight material at present.

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